beauty

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty, never grows old. - F. Kafka

Simple things can sometimes be the most beautiful. So fortunately, I have been able to capture some of the moments that I have found to be particularly lovely. Sunset over the frozen lake in Chrisitania, the weird and wonderful houses in that neighbourhood, fresh fallen snow flakes, hot air balloons, and then more recently the growths on potatoes I forgot about in my cupboard and a bumblebee that got stuck inside my apartment. I know. Whaaat? Being woken up by the sound of buzzing trying to escape out a window was a bit of a fright I have to admit but I had to take a photo before I let it go just because I'd never seen a bee so big and furry!

frederikssund

Frederik is a fairly important name for Danish royals so as well as there being Frederiksborg Palace, Frederiksberg the municipality of Copenhagen where I live, and probably many others that I haven't come across yet, there is also Frederikssund. This is the destination we chose for the free train trip on the first Sunday of April (also my birthday for those playing at home.)
Also a quick bit of trivia: 'borg' means castle/palace, 'berg' or really 'bjerg' means mountain and apparently 'sund' means healthy. King Frederik the Healthy named Frederikssund? Hmm

Aaanyway, it was a small little town on the edge of the Roskilde Fjord with a strong Viking history. There wasn't much happening though because the main Viking 'games' and entertainments don't start until summer. So we mainly just had a casual stroll around the empty Viking village and checked out the fjord. And quite impressive it was too, especially because it wasn't a particularly nice day so there was a bit of fog across the water giving everything a nice eerie atmosphere.

frederiksborg slot

The first Sunday of March (I know, a while ago now), I took the free S-train again with a couple of friends to the delightful town of Hillerød, north-west of Copenhagen. Here the main attraction is the Frederiksborg Castle and National History Museum. It was a glorious day and one of the first real days of sun since we had been in Denmark so the grounds were also a sight to see and would be absolutely marvellous in the summer for just relaxing by the water.
The palace used to be the royal residence until the death of Christian IV in 1648 and then was mainly used for official ceremonies like anointing and crowning the monarchs. Sometime later, I think in the 1850s, a fire destroyed part of the palace and after it was reconstructed, it then became the Museum of National History. The palace church is still used for its traditional purposes and apparently Prince Joachim even married his first wife there (that's Freddie's younger brother for those interested).

 
And of course, there were a couple of little things that tickled me enough to take a photo.
This guy won the competition for the most impressive moustache:

And this Thai Prince won the competition for the sassiest coat of arms. That's right gurlfren:

louisiana

Back on track. After a busy couple of months of uni and assessments I now have time to write more about what I've been doing in my spare time.
A couple of months ago now, one of the teachers from school took a group of us exchange students on a little excursion to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Extremely generously, it was all paid for by the school including the train ride there and entrance as well. The main reason we went was to see the Picasso exhibition that had just opened the week before. It really was a great collection of paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings focusing on the artist's ability to interpret and transform the political and social events of the 20th century.
I wasn't able to take any photos of the exhibition but some of my favourite pieces were the posters that he had designed for various events as well as the sketches he had done for French newspapers.

The other parts of the museum were also excellent. The permanent collection had some really interesting things by some of the heavy weights of modern art including Warhol, Lichtenstein, Yves Klein and Alberto Giacometti. There was also a really great exhibition by American artist Walton Ford who does paintings of animals of all kinds in the style of old zoological illustrations. They were amazingly detailed and beautiful and grotesque at the same time. As an artist I hadn't heard of before, it was really great to be able to see such a collection of his work.

http://www.louisiana.dk/uk